Category Archives: Other waterways

Giant Chinook salmon of 50 pounds or more have not yet faded
into legend, as operators of a salmon hatchery in Central British
Columbia, Canada, can tell you.

Ted Walkus, a hereditary chief
of the Wuikinuxv First Nation, holds a Chinook salmon caught this
year for the Percy Walkus Hatchery on the Wannock River in Central
British Columbia.Photo: Percy Walkus Hatchery

The annual spawning effort at the Percy Walkus Hatchery on the
Wannock River involves catching Chinook as they move upstream
rather than waiting for them to arrive at the hatchery. This year,
fishing crews brought home a remarkably large fish that has lived
long and prospered. The progeny of this fish will be returned to
the river from the hatchery to continue the succession of large
Chinook.

These big fish compare to the massive Chinook that once made
their way up the Elwha River and other major salmon streams of
Puget Sound. Knowing that these big fish still exist provides hope
that we might someday see such large salmon on the Elwha, following
the recent removal of two dams and ongoing habitat restoration.

Large, powerful Chinook are suited to large, powerful streams.
Big chinook can fight their way through swifter currents, jump up
larger waterfalls and protect their eggs by laying deeper redds.
Experts aren’t sure that the conditions are right for large Chinook
to return to the Elwha, but many are hopeful. I explored this idea
in a story I wrote for the
Kitsap Sun in 2010.

As for the two-year-old Percy Walkus Hatchery, big fish are not
uncommon in the Wannock River, as you can see in the hatchery’s
Facebook photo gallery. By spawning both large and smaller
salmon, the hatchery hopes to rebuild the once-plentiful numbers of
Chinook in the system. Involved in the project are the Wuikinuxv
First Nation along with Canada’s Department of Fisheries and Oceans
and others.

Ted Walkus, a hereditary chief of the Wuikinuxv and the man
featured in the photo on this page, said the largest fish need to
remain part of the gene pool for the hatchery and the river. That’s
why volunteers go out into the river to take the brood stock. This
year, 47 males and 47 females were spawned to produce more than
300,000 fertilized eggs.

“If you catch a 60-pound salmon and you keep it without
breeding, that part of the gene pool eventually gets wiped out,”
Walkus was quoted as saying in a
CBC News report.

For similar reasons, some anglers choose to release their catch
alive, if possible, after getting a photo of their big fish. The
hope, of course, is that the fish will continue on and spawn
naturally. In the hatchery, the genes will be passed on to more
salmon when the progeny are released. Unfortunately, I was unable
to quickly locate a facility management plan for the Percy Walkus
Hatchery to see if anyone has projected the long-term effects of
the hatchery.

Chet Gausta, middle, shows off
the big fish he caught off Sekiu in 1964. Chet's younger brother
Lloyd, left, and his uncle Carl Knutson were with him on the
boat.Photo courtesy of Poulsbo Historical
Society/Nesby

Big fish are genetically inclined to stay at sea five, six or
seven years rather than returning after four years. They must avoid
being caught in fishing nets and on fishing lines during their
migration of up to 1,000 miles or more before making it back home
to spawn.

Perhaps you’ve seen historical black-and-white photos of giant
Chinook salmon taken near the mouth of the Elwha River. Like the
giant Chinook of the Wannock River, some of these fish are nearly
as long as a grown man is tall. Catching them with rod and reel
must be a thrill of a lifetime.

Some of those giants — or at least their genes — may still be
around. The largest Chinook caught and officially weighed in
Washington state dates back to 1964. The 70-pound monster was
caught off Sekiu by Chester “Chet” Gausta of Poulsbo, who I wrote
about upon his death in 2012. See
Water Ways, Feb. 3, 2012. His photo is the second on this
page.

There’s something to be said for releasing salmon over a certain
size, and that goes for commercial fishing as well as sport
fishing. Gillnets, for example, target larger fish by using mesh of
a certain size, say 5 inches. Smaller fish can get through the
nets, spawn in streams and produce the next generation — of smaller
fish.

The genetic effects of removing the larger fish along with the
effects of taking fish during established fishing seasons
artificially “selects” (as Darwin would say) for fish that are
smaller and sometimes less fit. Some researchers are using the term
“unnatural selection” to describe the long-term effects of fishing
pressure. I intend to write more about this soon and also discuss
some ideas for better managing the harvest to save the best fish
for the future.

Coconut crabs are giant land-based crustaceans that can grow to
3 feet wide, claw-to-claw. The crabs, frightening to some, inhabit
islands in the Pacific and Indian oceans.

These crabs, which grow larger than any other land-based
arthropod, are known for their uncanny strength. They get their
name from an ability to break through coconut husks with their
powerful claws. They can also break a lot of other things, as
revealed in a variety of amusing videos, some of which I’ve posted
on this page.

Coconut crabs became a topic of discussion among scientists last
month when a group of Japanese researchers reported that they had
measured the strength in the legs and claws of coconut crabs. They
found that these crabs could lift four times their weight, and
their pinching power was greater than that of any other kind of
crab, even greater than the jaw strength of terrestrial predators.
The report was published in the online journal
Plos One.

It is a project that I’ve been discussing since 2001, when
former Harper resident Chuck Hower first introduced me to the idea,
a concept that he had been promoting with state and federal
officials. (See
Kitsap Sun, Feb. 2, 2001.)

Orion Marine Contractors was the successful bidder among six
companies that offered bids on the project to remove much of the
fill material placed in and around the estuary. The amount of soil
to be removed is estimated at more than 15,000 cubic yards, or
enough to fill roughly 1,000 dump trucks.

“The work will restore (the estuary) to levels conducive to
marsh establishment,” said Doris Small of the Washington Department
of Fish and Wildlife. The project will recover a spit, reconnect
saltwater to an impounded wetland and remove a bulkhead and old
“relic” road that impounds the wetland, she said.

Tidal waters in Silverdale flow smoothly in and out of Clear
Creek estuary, passing under a new 240-foot-long bridge — a massive
structure that has replaced a pair of six-foot culverts.

New Bucklin Hill Bridge //
Photo: C. Dunagan

I visited the site this afternoon, walking over to the bridge
from Old Mill Park, and I found the changes startling. Flows of
freshwater from Clear Creek joins saltwater that trickles through
tidal channels from Dyes Inlet. Tidal shifts are reshaping the
estuary, flushing out trapped sediment and leaving deposits of
gravel of varying size. When the fall rains come, salmon will be
able to linger in the estuary upstream or downstream of the bridge
before moving up into the watershed.

Twin culverts before
constructionPhoto: Kitsap County

Traffic across the estuary was shut off for construction a
little more than a year ago. Now county officials are planning to
celebrate the opening of the new bridge on Friday of next week
(July 22). The ceremony, led by Kitsap County Commissioner Ed
Wolfe, will begin at 10 a.m. on the east end of the bridge. A
Marine Corps honor guard will present the colors, and the Central
Kitsap High School marching band will perform.

“We encourage the community to join us in celebrating this
special occasion,” Ed stated in a news release.
“The new bridge not only addresses traffic needs, but provides
additional non-motorized enhancements as well as restoring Clear
Creek estuary with the removal of culverts.”

Parking will be available at the former Albertson’s/Haggen
grocery store parking lot near the intersection of Bucklin Hill and
Mickelberry roads.

The $19.4 million construction project is said to be the largest
project of its kind ever undertaken by the county. The bridge
allows the roadway to be widened from two to four lanes with a new
left-turn lane at Levin Road and a center two-way turn lane
elsewhere in the area. The project adds new bike lanes, sidewalks
and pedestrian overlooks.

After the bridge opens, the contractor, Granite Construction,
will continue to finish various aspects of the project. Occasional
traffic delays can be expected, according to county officials.

Chris Butler-Minor, a master’s degree candidate at Portland
State University, is studying the ecological changes resulting from
the project with the help of volunteers. They are collecting water
samples and monitoring sediments, vegetation and invertebrates.

“It’s a yearlong inconvenience but the outcome will be improved
transportation, improved bike and pedestrian access, and the salmon
are going to love it,” Chris was quoted as saying in a
story by Kitsap Sun reporter Ed Friedrich.

The new Bucklin Hill Bridge
opens up the estuary. // Photo: C.
Dunagan

I’m certainly no highway engineer, but I’ve been thinking about
the difference between building roads in Kansas, where I was born,
and building roads in the Puget Sound region.

Kansas has its streams and wetlands to be sure, but nothing like
the density of natural features that we find in the Puget Sound
watershed, where land elevations change constantly and roadways
must cross streams and wetlands at every turn.

For many years, road construction in the Puget Sound region
involved filling wetlands and burying pipes just big enough to pass
the water. It was assumed that salmon would make it through. But
based on our current knowledge of salmon migration, we realize that
these shortcuts took a major toll on the populations of salmon and
other fish.

This week, the U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a
lower court ruling requiring state agencies to correct decades of
road-building mistakes that impaired salmon passage on state
highways and on state forest roads. Check out
Monday’s story in the Kitsap Sun.

The lawsuit, filed by 21 Indian tribes, was based on the idea
that undersized and poorly functioning culverts severely affected
the total salmon runs in violation of treaties signed in the 1850s,
which promised Native Americans the right to fish forever in
traditional locations.

The lawsuit did not address culverts owned by the federal
government, local governments or private property owners, but the
same principles apply. Steps are now being taken to improve salmon
passage based on standards developed by the Washington Department
of Fish and Wildlife.

Meanwhile, a state advisory committee, known as the Fish Barrier Removal
Board, has been working to establish priorities with top-ranked
projects providing the greatest improvement in salmon habitat.

Kitsap County Engineer Jon Brand, who serves on the board,
described a two-pronged approach to set the priorities. One is to
focus on priority watersheds, with the idea of making major
improvements in a variety of streams in a given area. (See map
above and board
materials (PDF 50.4 mb), Oct. 20, 2015.) The second approach is
to coordinate planning for top-priority streams, with the idea of
working on entire stream systems at once. Obviously, it does not
make sense to replace a culvert upstream if a downstream culvert
continues to block salmon passage. Check out the list of
top-30 ranked projects (PDF 57 kb).

The Fish Barrier Removal Board is putting together a funding
package to be submitted to the Legislature. As Jon pointed out,
some of the most effective projects for salmon passage are not in
the Puget Sound region nor subject to the federal court ruling. The
list also goes beyond state roadways and includes a mix of
ownerships based on the watershed and stream priorities mentioned
above.

State lawmakers face some difficult funding decisions. With the
court order hanging over their heads, along with a 2030 deadline,
they may choose to do only culvert-removal projects in the Puget
Sound region, even though projects in other areas could get a
greater bang for the buck. And will there be money left over to
support local governments trying to improve salmon passage in their
areas?

I asked Jon about the expediency of early road-builders who must
have given little consideration to salmon when they filled
wetlands, carved out drainage ditches and installed pipes to carry
the flow of water. It was not always that way, Jon told me.

That method of road-building arrived with the invention of large
earth-moving equipment, he said. In the 1800s and early 1900s,
filling a stream and inserting a culvert was more difficult than
building a bridge of logs, given the vast quantities of timber on
the Kitsap Peninsula.

Those early log bridges no doubt caused fewer problems for
salmon, but they did not last. Eventually, nearly every bridge was
replaced, often by dumping fill across the stream and allowing a
small culvert to carry the water.

As for my misguided notion that Kansas can ignore stream
crossings because the state has no serious environmental problems,
I found this language in “Kansas
Fish Passage Guide” (PDF 2.3 mb), a document written for
road-builders:

“In Kansas, fish passage issues caused by culverts were not
recognized by road officials until about 2010, when … research
indicated that culverts and low-water crossings were a significant
cause of habitat fragmentation in the Kansas Flint Hills.

“Many of the threatened and endangered fish in Kansas are a type
of minnow or minnow-size fish. Small fish typically are not strong
swimmers, so waterfalls, water velocity and turbulence can be a
barrier to passage upstream. Culverts are dark and have an atypical
channel bottom that may also discourage fish passage. Lack of water
depth through the culvert can restrict passage during low-flow
seasons…

“Stream barriers reduce habitat range and can adversely affect
fish populations upstream and downstream of the stream crossing. A
severe event like a drought or oil spill in a stream segment can
wipe out a species, and the species cannot repopulate the stream
because of the barrier.”

Kansas has begun to prohibit blocking culverts and to address
existing fish-passage issues. As the above-referenced publication
states, “On the Great Plains, it’s usually easy to design and
construct a stream crossing for a two-lane road to provide fish
passage.”

It has always been a question to ponder: Will the most
significant changes to the Elwha River ecosystem occur upstream of
where two dams have been removed or downstream where the river
enters the Strait of Juan de Fuca?

Photo: Olympic National
Park

Soon after each dam was torn down in succession — the lower one
first — salmon began migrating upstream, while more than 30 million
cubic yards of sediment began moving downstream.

It could take a number of years to rebuild the extensive runs of
salmon, including the prized chinook for which the Elwha was famous
among salmon fishermen across the country. Will we ever see the
legendary 100-pound chinook return to the Elwha, assuming they ever
existed? That was a question I explored in a story for the
Kitsap Sun in September 2010.

On the other hand, massive amounts of sediment have already
spilled out of the Elwha River, building an extensive delta of sand
and gravel, including about 80 acres of new habitat and two miles
of sandy beach.

Reporter Tristan Baurick focused on the dramatic shoreline
changes already taking place at the mouth of the Elwha in a
well-written story published in
Sunday’s Kitsap Sun.

The Coastal Watershed Institute, which is monitoring the
shoreline near the mouth of the Elwha has documented increases in
critical forage fish populations, including surf smelt, sand lance,
eulachon (candlefish) and longfin smelt. See CWI
Blog. These fish feed a host of larger fish, birds and marine
mammals.

Tristan describes the changes offshore, where an area starved of
sediment is turning into prime habitat for starry flounder,
Dungeness crab and many other animals. Rocky outcroppings that once
provided attachment for bull kelp is giving way to fine sand, which
allows for colonization by eelgrass and a host of connected
species. I described some of the early changes in the flora in a
Kitsap Sun story in March of 2013.

For people to view the restoration first-hand, I described a day
trip to the Elwha in a
Kitsap Sun story in April of 2013. Along the way, you can check
out the history, enjoy the vantage points and learn about the
changes taking place. Tristan offers a suggestion worth heeding to
ensure ongoing beach access.

“Access to the beach is granted by the dike’s owners. They could
take that away if the area’s overwhelmed with trash, noise and
other nuisances, so keep that in mind when you visit.”

If you’d like to see a video record of dam removal and ecosystem
recovery, you may wish to view the film “Return of the River” to be
shown at Bremerton’s Admiral Theatre on Friday, March 13. The film
will be followed by a panel discussion involving the film’s
producers, John Gussman and Jessica Plumb. For details, check the
Kitsap
Sun website.

The American dipper, a chunky songbird able to walk on the
bottom of swift-moving streams, is one of the many species
benefitting from removal of the Elwha dams, according to a new
study.

You might see this bird bobbing up and down at the edge of a
stream or pecking away at bugs in shallow water. They are memorable
for repetitive diving or simply walking along as water rushes over
and around them. Their transparent second eyelid allows them to
search for tiny invertebrates and small fish, including juvenile
salmon. They can close their nostrils under water, and their
feathers produce extra oil to protect them from the cold water.
(The video from YouTube does not say where it was filmed.)

As for dippers in the Olympic Mountains, the arrival of salmon
far upstream from the Elwha dams could boost the population of
these marvelous birds, said to be America’s only true aquatic
songbird.

Since salmon put on most of their body mass in the ocean, the
nutrients they bring back to their natal streams help feed an
entire upstream ecosystem. Two new studies led by Christopher Tonra
of Ohio State University demonstrate the rapid recovery of the
American dipper in the Elwha — a faster recovery than anyone
expected. It also offers hope for a quick turnaround from dam
removal in other areas.

“It’s exciting to be able to show a real positive outcome in
conservation,” Tonra said in a story by Misti
Crane of OSU. “That these rivers can come back within our own
generation is a really exciting thing.”

Christopher Tonra of Ohio State
University bands an American dipper in the field.

The studies by Tonra and his colleagues showed that American
dippers with access to salmon contained more marine-derived
nutrients. They were 20 times more likely to attempt multiple
broods and were 13 times more likely to stay in one area
year-round. Their adult survival rate was 11 percent higher than in
areas without salmon.

Females with access to salmon had larger body mass, suggesting a
healthier condition, and their female offspring also were
larger.

The biggest surprise to the researchers was how quickly the
salmon returned, providing a growth opportunity for many wildlife
populations.

“It was pretty much as soon as the first dam came out and fish
were beating up against the second, wanting to go,” Tonra said.

Tonra was previously associated with the Smithsonian Migratory
Bird Center. Others involved in the project were Kimberly
Sager-Fradkin of the Lower Elwha Klallam Tribe, Peter Marra of the
Smithsonian, Sara Morley of Northwest Fisheries Science Center and
Jeffrey Duda of the Western Fisheries Research Center.

I found the following video on YouTube and had to share it. The
video, taken at Vancouver Aquarium, shows an unusual interaction
between a dipper and a baby beluga whale.

Layers in rock shown in this
photograph taken by the Curiosity rover lead scientists to believe
the Martian formation resulted from a series of sedimentary
deposits laid down over millions of years.Photo courtesy of NASA/Jet Propulsion
Laboratory

Photos taken recently on Mars are exciting, to say the least, as
the Curiosity rover sends back pictures of layered canyon walls
like you might see near a river or lake on planet Earth.

A leading interpretation is that a 3-mile-high mountain known as
Mount Sharp was formed by sediments deposited in a massive lake
over millions of years.

Ashwin Vasavada, Curiosity’s deputy project scientist, suggested
in a
press release that this is a new way of thinking about the
Martian landscape:

“If our hypothesis for Mount Sharp holds up, it challenges the
notion that warm and wet conditions were transient, local, or only
underground on Mars. A more radical explanation is that Mars’
ancient, thicker atmosphere raised temperatures above freezing
globally, but so far we don’t know how the atmosphere did
that.”

The rock layers likely were the result of repeated filling and
evaporation of the lake in Gale Crater, nearly 100 miles across. As
some sediments hardened into rock, winds carved away material
between the edge of the crater and what is now the edge of the
mountain, project scientists speculate.

How layers were formed from
successive deposits of sediment.

Curiosity is exploring the lower portion of Mount Sharp, a
500-foot section of rock known as the Murray Formation. As
Curiosity moves up the slope, it may seem as if the rover is
traveling through time, observing changes in sediment composition
and chemistry.

Already, on the five-mile journey from its landing site in Gale
Crater, Curiosity has sent back data about how the crater floor was
changed during its lake period. Sanjeev Gupta of Imperial College
in London, a member of Curiosity’s science team, noted:

“We found sedimentary rocks suggestive of small, ancient deltas
stacked on top of one another. Curiosity crossed a boundary from an
environment dominated by rivers to an environment dominated by
lakes.”

Marc Kaufmann, author of the book “Mars Up Close,” pointed out
that NASA scientists studying the Red Planet have now identified
the key elements for life: standing water that persists; a
continuing source of energy; the elements carbon, oxygen, hydrogen,
phosphorus and nitrogen; and lots of time. See article in the
New York Times.

Orbiting satellites have found evidence of dried-up lakes, which
certainly does not prove that life existed, but it suggests that
the stage was set. Kaufmann quoted John Grotzinger of Caltech, the
project scientist for Curiosity:

“As a science team, Mars is looking very attractive to us as a
habitable planet. Not just sections of Gale Crater and not just a
handful of locations, but at different times around the globe.”

Curiosity is not equipped to discover life per se, but it was
able to find some simple organic chemicals. A news conference has
been scheduled for Sunday at the annual meeting of the American
Geophysical Union to present some new information. Kaufman quoted
Daniel P. Glavin of the Goddard Spaceflight Center, who has been
studying the data:

“Our original interpretation — that there was a good chance the
organics we were seeing are Martian — hasn’t changed. This
interpretation will be expanded on at A.G.U.”

Curiosity, which landed on Mars Aug. 6, 2012, has been
collecting data about climate and geology to better understand the
natural history of the planet and help prepare for a human space
mission to the planet.

Below is a video about these new findings by Newsy, a video news
network.

I want to recognize the Kitsap Sun’s editorial cartoonist Milt
Priggee for capturing the feeling of the moment last week when the
final piece of a dam on the Elwha River was blown up. See Water Ways, Aug. 27, 2014.

The video below was recorded on that same day by Anne Shaffer of
the Coastal Watershed Institute while snorkeling in a kelp bed in
western Freshwater Bay, not far from where the Elwha River flows
into the Strait of Juan de Fuca.

Watching this video and the large number of herring gives me a
feeling of optimism, although I recognize there is no scientific
basis for this. Someone please tell me the herring are doing
better.

“We couldn’t think of a better place to be the day the last dam
went down,” Anne said in an email to members of her listserv.

The Coastal
Watershed Institute has been monitoring the nearshore
area, where the Elwha River has been dramatically transforming the
delta. Sediment, unleashed by dam removal, pours out of the Elwha
and builds up in the estuary.

Tom
Roorda, an aerial photographer, has been documenting
the transformation with thousands of pictures he has taken over the
past several years.

Tom Roorda of Roorda Aerial
photography captured this image showing the ongoing buildup of
sediment at the mouth of the Elwha River. //Photo by
Tom Roorda

I believe it is important to commemorate the final day of the
Glines Canyon Dam — even though only a relatively small chunk of
the structure had been left in place since February, when flows in
the Elwha River covered over the last 30 feet.

In a massive explosion on Tuesday, that last 30 feet of concrete
was blasted away. Almost immediately, the river began to flow
freely, at basically the same elevation it was before the dam was
built in the 1920s.

Olympic National Park officials say it will take several weeks
to clear away the rubble dislodged by the final blast, but dramatic
changes have been taking place downstream of the former Glines
Canyon Dam — the second dam on the river, built eight miles
upstream of the Elwha Dam.

Researchers are carefully monitoring sediment distribution and
salmon migration, officials say. During the past three years, the
Elwha River has experienced unusually low flows, so experts are
waiting for more typical winter flows to move around some of the
larger boulders in the stream.

Since last fall, salmon have been swimming upstream of the Elwha
Dam site. The dam, built without a fish ladder, blocked salmon
migration into some 70 miles of near-pristine habitat. Now,
biologists expect all five species of Northwest salmon to
recolonize the river.

In a story in today’s Peninsula Daily News, reporter Arwyn Rice
quoted Robert Ellefson, restoration manager for the Lower Elwha
Klallam Tribe: “It’s a good day… It has been the dream of tribal
members for a hundred years.”

The tribe will have something special to celebrate come next
July, when members hold their annual welcoming ceremony,
acknowledging the return of chinook salmon to the Elwha River.